Responsible Community Based Ecotourism Initiatives in Protected Rural Areas of the Balkans: Case Studies from Serbia and Croatia
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American Journal of Tourism Management 2014, 3(1B): 51-63 DOI: 10.5923/s.tourism.201402.06 Responsible Community Based Ecotourism Initiatives in Protected Rural Areas of the Balkans: Case Studies from Serbia and Croatia Vesna Đukić1, Ivana Volić1,*, Sanja Tišma2, Daniela Angelina Jelinčić2 1Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia 2Institute for Development and International Relations, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia Abstract Assuming that community-based ecotourism as a form of alternative tourism must embrace individual initiatives within the community, this study compares ecotourism initiatives in rural communities of Serbia and Croatia. The aim of this paper is to analyze these initiatives and develop a model of responsible community-based ecotourism, which is posible to implement in protected rural areas next to the large cities and towns in the Danube basin in the Balkan region. Bearing in mind that the involving appreciation not only of nature, but also for indigenous cultures prevailing in natural areas as part of the visitor experience, this empirical research is primarly focused on the local initiatives aimed at the quality of the visitor experience of two protected rural areas – Ponjavica (Serbia) and Kopački rit (Croatia). The model was developed in order to guide future initiatives aimed at ecotourism development in protected rural areas of the Balkans, which can meet the needs of domestic and foreign tourists, providing the surrounding villages an image of attractive tourist destinations. Keywords Responsible tourism, Community-based tourism, Ecotourism, Rural communities, Initiatives, Protected areas, Balkan, Danube, Serbia, Croatia being analyzed are two localities in two neigbouring 1. Introduction countries - Omoljica (Serbia) and Kopačevo (Croatia). Both locations contain a nature protected area within their territory This paper addresses the issues of responsible tourism, as well as the cultural resources that are poorly evaluated community based tourism, ecotourism and integrated and used. More broadly, the development and use of these management projects in the Balkan region, where currently resources should be harmonized with the concept of there are no theoretically elaborated concepts from which responsible tourism, while for further planning and some valuable theoretical outcomes would emerge. management a community based tourism concept should be Additionally, the reason for the lack of theoretical studies of applied. This concept respects the natural and cultural the above mentioned concepts can be found in the resources and bases the tourism offer on their active use, non-existent practice of tourism in rural areas, especially of with the participation of the members of local community in its selective forms such as ecotourism. Although, there are all phases of its creation – from planning to service legally defined protected areas, as well as prescribed ways of providing and evaluation. Given that the subject of this their use (which often include sustainable forms of tourism paper are nature protected areas, the essence of ecotourism such as ecotourism and educational tourism), in reality some as a specific form of tourism should be considered and nature protected sites have only fundamental protection with aligned with the above mentioned development concepts. no concrete measures implemented. Also, protection studies In the widest sense, responsible tourism is rooted in the are often made without consulting and involvement of the concept of sustainable tourism development, which is local community and without assessing the situation on the described as „paths of development that satisfy the needs and field. wants of present generations without compromising the This paper examines the concepts of responsible ability of future generations to meet their own needs‟ [1]. community-based ecotourism, as well as the possibilities for Sustainable development emphasizes the right of local its development in the Balkan region. Case studies that are people to take part in the decision-making process and to be consulted on activities likely to have an effect on their * Corresponding author: [email protected] (Ivana Volić) well-being[2]. Responsible tourism is a tourism management Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/tourism strategy embracing potential assessment (evaluation of the Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved community attractions, visitor services, organizational 52 Vesna Đukić et al.: Responsible Community Based Ecotourism Initiatives in Protected Rural Areas of the Balkans: Case Studies from Serbia and Croatia capabilities, ability to protect resources, as well as counter the tensions resulting from the more negative marketing), planning (setting of priorities and measurable impacts from uneven/unplanned development, many goals), management (protection and preparation for visitors), researchers are suggesting that tourism-dominated/interested product development and marketing to bring about positive communities should plan their evolution more systematically, economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts [3], [4], thereby taking into account residents‟ attitudes and [5]. Tourists as stakeholders in responsible tourism are rarely perceptions about its growth at the outset [3]. The most clarified by their effect on the ecosystem. Within the concept comprehensive definition of community based tourism was of responsible tourism, tourists with their ecological thinking given by the Thailand Community Based Tourism Institute, assume responsibility for sustainable practice [6]. The which claims that it is a „tourism that takes environmental, importance of this concept for the development of local social and cultural sustainability into account. It is managed communities and the pronounced involvement of local and owned by the community, for the community, with the stakeholders for the successful implementation of purpose of enabling visitors to increase their awareness and responsible tourism in rural areas of Europe was formulated learn about the community and local ways of life‟ [21]. in The European Charter for sustainable and responsible Institutional, operational and cultural limitations of the local tourism [7]. community should be taken into account when planning Each year more attention is given to the scientific research CBT. However, local initiatives are crucial for achieving devoted to these topics. Regardless of the number of papers success as they stipulate whether the CBT becomes an related to specific areas of tourism development, acceptable model for different stakeholders in the local environmental protection, local economic development and community [20]. rural development, their interrelationships and mutual Ecotourism, as the third conceptual aspect of this paper influences on development are seldom investigated. Some regards ecotourism as „a sustainable form of natural indications of possible cooperation and networking areas can resource-based tourism that focuses primarily on be found in research related to sustainable tourism in experiencing and learning about nature and which is protected areas, as in [8], [9]. Ecotourism is described as ethically managed to be low-impact, non-consumptive and inter-sectorial approach to minimizing negative locally oriented‟ [22]. Some additional characteristics of consequences for the environment and the possibility of ecotourism related to responsible project management were strengthening local cultural identity, the segment to which given by the UNEP and the World Tourism Organization. cultural tourism is mentioned [10]. They include involving appreciation for indigenous cultures In the context of the protection of natural and cultural prevailing in natural areas, as part of the visitor experience; heritage for the development purposes, recent studies often containing education and interpretation as part of the tourist mention local natural resource management and show offer; presence of small visitor groups organized by small, popular choice of activities aiming at conservation of specialized and locally owned businesses [23]. Thus, biodiversity, cultural identity and economic growth and ecotourism becomes the driver of local development through development through service activities, mainly tourism [11]. new entrepreneurial activities, particularly in the field of Although community-based tourism planning has been a social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship in rural subject in developed countries in the last two decades of the areas may be the stirring wheel of social change, progress twentieth and the first decade of the twenty first century, as and prosperity [24]. in [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [3], [17], [2], [18], [19], [20] In connection with community based tourism concept, there is not a significant theoretical work on this issue in the WWF developed the concept of community-based Balkans. The core of this concept lays in the community ecotourism describing it as a form of tourism „where the framework in tourism development. Such a framework local community has substantial control over, and „allows for some form of local control and direction on the involvement in its development and management, and a still business-oriented industry‟ [12]. It is based on a certain major proportion of the benefits remain within the level of public participation which could be viewed as either community‟ [23]. This organization further explains that the „involvement